rentier

American  

[rahn-tyay] / rɑ̃ˈtjeɪ /

noun

French.

• rentiers
  plural

1. a person who has a fixed income, as from lands or bonds.

---

rentier British  

/ rɑ̃tje /

noun

1. 1. a person whose income consists primarily of fixed unearned amounts, such as rent or bond interest

   2. ( as modifier )

      the rentier class

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• rentiers
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of rentier

from rente ; see _rent ¹

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rentier rentiers

“Has he inherited it from his dead parents? Is he a rentier, letting out hobbit-holes in Bagshot Row? Tolkien never says.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Pinar Giritlioglu, the Istanbul head of the Chamber of City Planners, said: "Unfortunately, the rentier system instead of science continues to rule everything."

From Reuters ● Feb. 20, 2023

The high interest rates on bank deposits encouraged a rentier economy that disincentivized investment in industry and agriculture.

From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2021

John Steinbeck’s great Dust Bowl novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” does an excellent job explicating how a financier-promoted rentier society spurred the mass exodus of Oklahomans post–Dust Bowl that resulted in death, loss and exploitation.

From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2019

The elder bought houses and became a rentier.

From The Grandissimes by George Washington Cable

The hosts, Sydney and Violet Schiff, British rentiers and patrons of the arts, pulled off a coup in a salon at the Hotel Majestic: They brought together five of the greatest artists of the era.

From Washington Post ● May 18, 2022

And if you can maintain constant revenues at a lower cost basis, that means even more profits for the rentiers.

From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2018

Entrepreneurs sought social acceptance by passing themselves off as rentiers.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 15, 2016

“The super-rich today are not rentiers living off their accumulated wealth, as was frequently true in early part of the last century,” he said.

From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2011

Directly the phase of enormous war loans ends, the new class of rentiers holding the various great new national loans will find themselves drawing this collectively vast income and anxious to invest it.

From What is Coming? by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---